Phil Bavaro wrote:
>
> I have recently converted our production facilities over to dissipative
> shoes after an exhaustive (three years) study into the feasibility and cost
> savings aspects of taking on such a crazy task.
>
> The crazy side of this is that there are a million problems when you try to
> set up a contract to cover all of the sizes and unique feet that exist
> across say a thousand workers.
>
> The good news is that we are six months past the inception and it is going
> well after a rocky start.  We still use heelstraps for new employees until
> we can get them fitted and wearing the shoes.  We also demand that the
> operators wear the shoes, because after all, we paid for them 100%.  The
> employees considered it a moral booster, after all, wouldn't you like it if
> your company were to pay for a nice pair of comfortable shoes that are
> guaranteed for at least one year.
>
> The cost savings aspects of shoes versus straps continues to grow as we
> discover more and more benefits due to the shoes.  I justified the shoes on
> the avoidance of test logs, and the annual inherent cost of heelstraps
> (which we found to work at best only for four months).
>
> The major technical reason for the conversion is that the shoes, once
> verified to work properly, never fail for any reason thereafter.  A claim
> that no heelstrap can make.  Accordingly the strap test logs go away as
> there is no reason to log in 100 acceptance.
>
> I was one of the guinea pigs for the evaluation so I can personally say
> that the shoes do not make your feet sweat in order to work and in fact I
> felt that they were more comfortable than my original shoes which were
> R***ports (and I was an avid believer in those shoes).
>
> The major obstacles were convincing management to pay 100%, and then to
> select the correct styles and brands so that male and female wearers from a
> size 5 up to 15 were all accounted for.
>
> Another problem with heelstraps is that wriststraps are required when
> seated.  Try testing an operator wearing shoes while seated and you'll know
> why esd chair manufacturers aren't allowed in our facility.
>
> Phil Bavaro
> Qualcomm Inc
>
> At 08:05 AM 7/31/97 -0400, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> >After trying both, here is my opinion...a)  heel straps work good if you use
> >them
> >and if you use them on both feet.  People put one leg up while working a lot
> >and
> >then your not grounded.  They are cheap, wear out a lot and people forget to
> >use
> >them or not put them on proplerly.
> >
> >                                                       b)  foot wear, shoes
> >or boots are expensive,
> >a pain to set up for people to get the right size, etc. especially if you
> >have a shoe
> >truck come in.  But, you realy should not wear the same shoes every day, and
> >the
> >most important fact, the shoes get the foot hot and sweaty (that's the way
> >they
> >work) and people don't like them for that reason.  If they take the shoes
> >home
> >and don't wear them the next day, then you need straps, there are other
> >negatives.
> >But, they work good.
> >
> >Therefore, as straps work good, and if you police the practice, that's the
> >better way in my opinion.
> >
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Phil,

As a leading manufacturer of static control products, and one of the
largest products of foot grounders in the world, I thought you might
find the following information interesting.  Below are some obsrvations
we have made with regard to foot grounders and dissipative shoes since
their inception:

1. Foot grounders have low resistance ratings